Tag: ibm

#8 – “We won’t be having fish.”

Friday Fun

icbc dinnerI’ve hosted many class dinners over the years as part of delivering my IT Manager Institute class. They were always fun, a few were truly memorable, and several were held in very interesting places. I will probably add future Friday FUN posts to tell you about more of these.

Dorine was able to attend several of the class dinners. She always went to class dinners held in the Nashville area, and she was able to travel to Orangestad, Aruba and Ljubljana, Slovenia with me. Both of the dinners she attended at these venues were memorable, , , I’m thankful I always took photos in these class events.

The subject of this post is about the class dinner I held for a special class from China. The largest bank in China (ICBC) sent four of their top IT managers, their CTO and three Directors, to Boulder, Colorado to attend a 3-month IT manager internship program organized by IBM. My 5-day IT Manager Institute was used to kick-off the program. At the time, these managers were responsible for 8,000 IT employees in their huge company.

Prior to the class, I researched Chinese culture to gain knowledge of their customs. I did this for any class I taught made up of students predominately from outside the US. Things that are OK or appropriate in the US are not always viewed that way in some countries.

This class was very interesting in that their IBM Marketing Rep from China also attended and he interpreted some of the things for them. Their English ranged from about 50-70% and my Chinese was and still is 0%. Several funny things happened in this class, but that’s a topic for another time.

Let’s talk about the class dinner.

lazy susan tableThe Chinese group had been in Boulder a couple of weeks to get oriented and settled in, and they found a very nice Chinese restaurant in downtown Boulder. It’s where they ate dinner most nights, , , so we went there. The table we sat at was a traditional round Lazy Susan table that allowed you to spin the serving section around to transfer some of each dish to your plate.

One of the things I learned in my research about the Chinese is that when you put food on your plate, , , you need to eat all of it. It’s impolite to leave good food on your plate. I was raised this way myself being from the South.

Two funny things happened at the dinner

The chef took care of all the food items. We chose a fish dinner so there were several appetizers along with a full length sea bass plus multiple vegetable dishes and other items to go along with the main course. Two funny things happened, at least they make me smile when I tell the story.

1.   One of the appetizers was jellyfish. Remember what I discovered about eating everything you put on your plate? Well, I made the mistake of taking a bit more of the jellyfish than I should have. For me, it was terrible, , , both in taste as well as texture. BAD NEWS, , , but I ate all of what I put on my plate. Lesson learned!!

fish dinner2.  The second funny thing was concerning the main course, a full length sea bass. It looked similar to the image to the right, , , 18 to 24 inches of fish from head to tail on a garnished dish. One of the traditions at a Chinese dinner is that you present the main course to the senior person or honoree, and he or she takes the first part of the dish. In this case it was the CTO, Mr. Lu.

The table was turned to display the fish to Mr. Lu. He proceeds to carve the head off of this big fish and puts it onto his plate. I thought he was simply prepping the fish for the rest of us, but that wasn’t it at all. I looked over a few minutes later and everything was gone except for a small pile of bones, , , he ate the head, eyes and all. I was told the head is actually considered the delicacy part of the fish.

Later, during our conversations I mentioned to the local IBM manager who coordinated the internship event for the ICBC manager team, “Tom, when you visit the group in China, you will be the honoree at dinner.” Tom laughed and quickly replied, “Well, we won’t be having fish.”

By the way, the dinner was completely authentic and delicious, , , except for the jellyfish. Good food, good company and a great night.

Hope you like this one. I appreciate your LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE of this post.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the IT Business Manager (ITBMC) program.

ITBMC Certificate

From my IBM Scrapbook

I began my career with IBM back in the late 1970’s when small and mid-size companies were buying their first computer. It was an exciting time called the “mini-computer days”.

One of the things I remember most was the great fun we had at IBM amidst some very hard work and long hours. It was a great experience where I learned the value of “working hard and playing hard”.

You may be experiencing some of the best time of your career right now. You owe it to yourself to capture a few memories along the way.

Here are a few photos from my IBM days:

Mike Sisco_IBMReceiving an award from Bryan Hathcock, , , Jim Cockerham and Jim Richie

Ginger and I receive Salesman of the Month honors from Macon Lee

After the meeting we played golf and had a big cookout, something we did once a year and it was great spending time on the big houseboat on the lake

A presentation in an off-site event

It was the days of the 3-piece suit and white shirts, , , an early presentation

Ron Scarbrough and me after a sales call

This is what it’s all about, , , my two senior mentors who helped me so much in my early career are on both sides as I receive a Regional IBM Manager’s Award.
Macon Lee, Charles Carroll, Me, Jim Cockerham, Jeannie Brunson

Charles Carroll and Jim Cockerham influenced my career considerably and I’ll always owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

My first presentation

scientistHave you ever been truly scared of something, , , I mean really, really frightened?

I have been truly scared at least once in my life, and it probably isn’t what you might think it would be. It was when I had to make my very first presentation in front of a group of people I did not know.

You need some background
It was a cold, snowy January day when I arrived at my first IBM class in Atlanta. I was 28 at the time and had just graduated from college, , , I was a bit older than a typical college graduate because I took a 4-year detour with the United States Marine Corps.

In the class there were some 30 or so students from all parts of the US, , , we were all proud “IBM rookies” eager to make our mark in the world, , , and we were about to go through IBM’s class called A-Mod.

I remember having to introduce myself to the class like everyone else did and how nervous I got as it got closer and closer for my time to speak. I would soon learn this would just be a teaser.

At the end of the first day, our Instructor brings out flip chart pads and magic markers, , , then he passes out assignment material to each of us. He returns to the front of the class and proceeds to assign us a task for the evening, , , we would learn that homework was going to be a common theme in all IBM classes.

Our assignment — develop a short, 5-minute flip chart presentation on the topic we were given. Everyone had a separate topic, , , no teamwork in this exercise. The following day we were to deliver a stand-up presentation of our topic using the flip chart bullet points we came up with from the material we were given.

The presentation would be recorded so we could view it and our Instructors could critique them to help develop our presentation skills. Our presentations were to be graded and this is important because it leads to our final grade average, , , something our future Performance Review from our IBM managers back home would take into consideration.

Grading would be based upon three things: content, organization of the content, and presentation delivery.

I had never made a presentation to a group of people I did not know, , , never, , , and even though I was older than most in the room and a former Marine, , , I was intimidated by the whole thing.

Intimidated is putting it mildly, , , I was scared.

Not physically scared mind you, , , but afraid of making a mistake, looking foolish, or just generally not doing well in front of my peers, , , even though I didn’t know any of them. It’s a trait I would learn 15 years later is pretty consistent among IT people.

Well, we all go to our apartments and everyone focuses on developing their presentation. My flip charts look great and I believe I have created bullet points that capture the key points of my topic. I was totally comfortable with this part.

But I’m still very much afraid of this task because of the presenting part to come, , , so much concern that I gave real thought to checking out, going to the airport, and heading home to tell my manager that I did not sign up to be  a salesman.

Fortunately, I didn’t go through with it. Can’t hurt that much, can it?

The next day we begin making our presentations and we deliver them in alphabetical order, , , so my name beginning with an “S” means I’ll deliver mine in the afternoon.

How much of the morning sessions do you think I heard?

That’s right, , , none of them.

Why? because I’m thinking through my presentation and analyzing every aspect of it, , , trying to remember what I need to say, etc. The closer we get to my turn, the more nervous I become.

Well, it finally comes my time to deliver, so I go up to the front of the room, they help me place my three flip chart sheets on the stand, , , put a microphone around my neck, , , , , , , ,

Did I mention they were going to place a microphone around our neck and record the whole thing?

More pressure!!!!!!!

OK, I’m finally all set and ready to begin, , , but first, a question for you:

Are you aware of what happens when you are truly scared, , ,  I mean truly frightened about something?

presentation_8Well, your body does some strange things that I learned for the first time at this moment in my life.

First, you can perspire or sweat.

Your body can tremble or shake.

Your voice can quiver, even come out at a higher pitch.

Your heart certainly beats faster and pounds like it’s coming out of your chest. I know this to be true.

But there is another thing that happens to you that I had no idea of until it occurred to me in this presentation.

Your mouth gets very dry, , , cotton dry, , , dry as the desert sand.

Well, when you speak your tongue actually bounces off the roof of your mouth as you say certain words and when your mouth is cotton dry, your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth. As you talk, your tongue gets stuck and when it releases, there is a distinct “POP“.

That’s right, you will hear an intermittent “popping” sound, , , you don’t know exactly when the “POP” will occur but it definitely does.

And remember, I have a microphone hanging around my neck.

As I work through my presentation, I hear this “POP” from time to time and I’m sure everyone else hears it. It’s a bit unsettling, but something occurred during this ordeal, , , as I went further and further into my presentation, it all got easier and easier.

My presence here today is testimony that this frightful event did not kill me, , , but it truly did scare the “bejeevies” out of me leading up to the event.

Mike Sisco – early IBM presentation – 1977

I’ve been very nervous in a few other large presentations in my career, but they got easier the more I gained experience in presenting.

The lesson
Today, I can deliver a presentation to hundreds of people and I don’t get nervous, , , as long as I’m prepared and know my material. What this says is that you can overcome your fears and learn how to do things that once intimidated you. It’s all about making an investment to become what you want to become.

They say the two things people are most afraid of are public speaking and death. Well, I’ve overcome the first one. If I can do it, I’m fairly confident anyone can.

Strong communication skills can help you considerably in your career, , , well worth the investment to gain them.

Something to think about
After I made my presentation in the IBM A-MOD class, the lady sitting next to me went up to do her presentation, , , and she “knocked it out of the park”. She was really good and did a super job, , , partly I thought because she had some teaching experience and had experience getting in front of people.

I was impressed so during a break I told her what a great job she did. Her reply surprised me. She said she was extremely nervous because of all the people in the room with IT degrees and experience, , , he degree and background was in History so she was intimidated a bit, , , just like me and probably the rest of us in the class but for different reasons.

What this told me is that “everyone gets scared” when presenting or doing things out of their comfort zone. From that point on, presentations got easier, , , and easier, , , and even better as I gained more and more experience.